Existing rules can be modified or removed and new rules added. Supported are file and folders names plus the wildcard. It is theoretically possible to clean all files that are stored on USB flash drives by adding a *.* rule. This could be interesting for users who have to clean a lot of USB flash drives or want to work with empty drives on a specific computer system.

The software program will run hidden and cleanup connected USB flash drives automatically. These settings can be changed in the options of the program so that a confirmation is required before the data is deleted on connected USB flash drives.

USB Drive Fresher is a free software program for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and several other Microsoft operating system. It is likely that the program will also run under Windows 7.

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Remove VirtualBox OSE

This is the easiest part of the tutorial. All you need to do is open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get autoremove virtualbox-ose

Once the OSE version has been removed it is time to install the closed source version of VirtualBox.

Installing closed source VirtualBox

The first thing to do is to add the proper sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Open up that file, with your favorite editor, and add the following line to the end of that file:

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian jaunty non-free

Now save the VirtualBox repository key on your machine (for the sake of simplicity place it in ~/Downloads) and issue the following command:

sudo apt-key add ~/Downloads/sun_vbox.asc

which will add the repo key to your system. Before you run the install update apt with the command:

sudo apt-get update

Now you can install the closed source version of VirtualBox with the command:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.2

During the installation you will also have to OK the compilation of the proper kernel module. If you do not do this you may not be able to create any VMs.

The last step for the installation is to add your user to the vboxusers group. Do this with the following command:

sudo gpasswd -a USERNAME vboxusers

Where USERNAME is your login. You will be prompted for your username.

Configure USB

Now it’s time to configure the system to allow USB support. You have to get the user ID of the vboxusers group. To do this issue the following command:

grep vboxusers /etc/group

which will report something like:

vboxusers:x:123:

What you need to now do is add a line to the /etc/fstab file. This line will be (if we stick with the user ID report you see above):

none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=123,devmode=664 0 0

With that file saved you are ready to reboot and start up VirtualBox with USB support.

Final thoughts

There are a lot of reasons why you would want to have USB support added to VirtualBox. For those iPhone owners out there it will give you a means to administer your phone without having to have a separate machine (or dual boot) in order to do so. This also greatly expands the capabilities of VirtualBox. The only downfall is you are giving up the open source version in order to gain USB support. For many this will be a worth wile trade-off. For others, giving over to closed sourced software isn’t worth having USB support. It would be nice, however, if Sun would open source the USB supported version.

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This all occurred to me when I recently bought my Palm Pre. After buying the device and returning to the car, I expected to use the same car charger I used for my previous Blackberry Curve to charge my new device. But when I opened the USB 2.0 jack I found out I was out of luck. So on my way to South Carolina I had to stop by a Sprint store and shell out nearly $30 for a charger. Why couldn’t Blackberry, Palm, Apple and Samsung agree to use the same type of charger?

That might have been one case, but it’s not the first, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when they have to buy a million and one variations of the same cable to do the same damn thing. I’m not saying we have to compromise performance, but just like all (well almost all) cell phone manufacturers have agreed to use either miniSD or microSD in their devices, it’s the same thing that should be done to stuff like headphone jacks chargers and better yet accessories.

I have no idea what Google and HTC were thinking when they didn’t equip a standard 3.5mm jack on the G1. Or why do we need to have ‘Apple Certified’ accessories for our iPhone’s. Yes I know the answer, its just a way for these companies to make more money even after they sell a device, because since Apple and Sony have certified accessories for their iPod and PSP line (respectively), you’ll notice that they will void your warranty if they can prove you used an accessory that was not approved by them And of course the certified accessories are more expensive cause the manufacturers are going to transfer their licensing fees to the consumer.

Thankfully there has been progress especially with Bluetooth, FireWire, CF card, eSATA and of course the indispensable Universal Serial Bus. I’m sure it’s going to take a while before I’m able to transfer my Palm Pre battery to my Motorola Q or worse notebook, or use the same charger I have plugged into my notebook for charging my cellphone, but at least some progress is here. Will ya speed it up though?

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

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SuperSpeed USB, which was demonstrated for the first time in 2007 will advance the serial bus standard once again. Transfer speeds have been raised to a speed of 5 Gbit / s which improves data transfer speeds tremendously. To copy a 25 Gigabyte file USB 1.0 needed 9.03h, USB 2.0 13.09 minutes and USB 3.0 1.10 minutes. USB 3.0 receptacles are backwards compatible with USB 2.0 device plugs which basically means that computer users can still connect their USB 2.0 or USB 1.0 devices into a computer system supporting USB 3.0.

Another interesting addition to USB 3.0 are power saving features which were especially designed for mobile devices. Packet traffic is no longer being broadcasted to the USB device which reduces its power usage. Additional power saving features like idle, sleep and suspend states have been added to USB 3.0 as well. A device entering sleep mode will practically be left alone by USB 3.0 Hosts until itself initiates a device mode change. The power specs have been increased on the other hand to be able to provide devices (like external hard drives) with additional power for their operation.

First devices that make use of USB 3.0 are expected in 2009 but the main push towards USB 3.0 is expected to begin in 2010.

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The Windows operating system has a Registry setting that can add USB write protection to a computer system. It is like a switch that can be enabled to make use of the write protection or disabled to allow write processes.

Users who experience problems writing to USB devices might want to take a look at this setting as well if they have the proper rights to do so to see if it is the cause for their difficulties.

Start by opening the run dialog box with the keyboard shortcut [Windows R]. Type [regedit] and hit [enter]. This should open the Windows Registry editor.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\

Look at the sub-keys and see if a key named StorageDevicePolicies is listed. If it is skip this paragraph and read the next. If it is not create the key by right-clicking Control and selecting New > Key

See if there is an entry named WriteProtect. It can be easily created if it is not present by right-clicking in the right window and selecting New > DWord from the menu. The following values are allowed for this entry:

• 0 – This will allow write processes on USB Flash Drives
• 1- This will block write processes on USB Flash Drives.

An alternative would be to delete the Registry key WriteProtect completely to enable both read and write processes. A restart or log off is required before the changes take effect.

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Some tests on the other hand – like the read stability test – will keep the existing data structure unharmed. Several different test modes are available including a full erase test. The test length can be selected as well ranging from one full cycle to a manual cycle selection, a burn it mode or until the first error has been found.

The application comes with several command line parameters that can be used to control the application from the command line or batch files. The parameters could be important if the removable drive is not properly identified by the software program. The /all switch will display all drives that are currently connected to the computer system making it easy to pick the removable devices that would not have been found otherwise.

Users should be aware though that the all parameter makes it possible to pick a hard drive for testing as well which can lead to data loss.

Check Flash is an excellent program to test the speeds of USB flashdrives. The program can be directly downloaded from the developers homepage and should run on most Windows operating systems.

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USB Blocker (via Techie Buzz) is a software program that can protect USB ports from being accessed unauthorized. One main benefit of USB Blocker is that it relies solely on group policy mechanisms and does not have to be deployed on client computer systems. USB port protection can be achieved with just a few mouse clicks on connected computer systems.

The application is controlled via a small interface that pops up for the first time after installation. A click on the Block USB Devices checkbox enables the options for managed active directory domains and provides the means to exclude computers from being blocked by the USB port protection software. There is also an option to only block devices for specific organizational units in the Active directory.

The usb port protection software can only be downloaded after a quick registration (without verification) at the website of the developer. USB Blocker is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems. A commercial version exists as well which extends the functionality of the USB port protection to include additional devices among other things.

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There is however another solution in the form of the USB security software USB Cop which has been uploaded to Sourceforge yesterday. USB Cop blocks all attempts to run an autorun.inf file on the computer system. It will instead display the contents of the file to the user giving a recommendation what the user should do with it.

Available options are to browse the contents of the disk or to close the dialog without performing an action. The interface itself will display all entries that are located in the autorun.inf file.

The option to execute the autorun.inf file normally is missing from the available options. What this application currently does is block all attempts of running an autorun.inf file on the computer system. The only difference between disabling that option in Windows and using the software is the ability to browse and see the contents of the autorun.inf file a bit faster and automatic with the software. In reality it would simply mean a few additional clicks for the same result without running a software in the background all the time.

The software itself uses about 4.5 Megabytes of computer memory while running.

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USB Safely Remove is a USB device manager that can be run on 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. USB devices like removable hard drives, memory sticks or even connected digital cameras become increasingly common but Microsoft failed to add the means to manage the devices effectively. The software program works basically with any hot-plug devices like USB, SATA, Firewire or PCMCIA devices.

One of the problems that Windows users might encounter is that most devices that get connected to the computer will use the name USB mass storage device. That makes it difficulty to safely unplug a specific device from the computer system. There is also no option to hide important devices that (never) get disconnected from the system.

USB Safely Remove provides an easier way to manage the devices in Windows. It uses and displays the actual device names & icons and offers ways to rename devices, change device icons and hide devices from the removal menu. A single hotkey can be used to navigate the menu and safely remove or open the device.

This is however just one function of the software. Another annoying Windows feature is that every card reader slot will be assigned to a drive letter which can easily mean that four or even more device letters are taken by card reader slots that are rarely if any in use. USB Safely Remove can be used to hide empty card reader slots automatically. There is also the option to eject cards directly from a card reader. Any process that would lock the card would be displayed so that it could be taken care of.

The reason if a device cannot be stopped on the computer system will be displayed by USB Safely Remove. It will display the running processes that lock the device so that it cannot be stopped or disabled.

It is probably a good time to explain the differences between stopping and disabling a device. Some devices cannot be stopped but only disabled in the hardware manager. USB Safely Remove automatically detects the type of drive and will stop or disable the device without making the user think about the type of device. It can also enable a disabled device at the next start of the computer system.

Programs can be started after a device gets connected to the computer and before a device gets disconnected or stopped again. One possible use for that feature would be to run the encryption software True Crypt to mount and dismount the encrypted container.

A command line version of the software program is provided as well which can be integrated in batch scripts or simply run from the command line.

One of the most interesting features of USB Safely Remove is the ability to start a stopped device. Without the software one would have to unplug the cable of the device and plug it back in so that Windows recognized it again. With USB Safely Remove it is just a matter of selecting the feature in the right-click menu of the application.

The USB software manager comes with several additional features like the ability to mount storage devices as NTFS folders, managing of drive letters or preventing Windows from assigning specific drive letters to devices.

The software developer created a unique url which can be used to request a serial number for the software program. This url is good for today only which is why we decided to publish the Giveaway right now and not at the usual time.

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Back to the usb sticks. The customer can pick one of the colorful templates and edit that or start the process with a white usb stick. The sticks can be rotated, zoomed in and out, opened and looked at from every possible direction.

It is then possible to change the colors of all the parts, apply text, upload images and frames to create fantastic looking usb sticks. Just look at some of the results, they look really great.

The company is using a specialized 3D printer to create those custom usb sticks and other products.

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The main interface consists of three buttons for the restore, backup and rescan functions. The rescan button is helpful if an USB device is not automatically recognized by the application which is the case when a card is changed in a card reader.

The data of the USB device is stored in a compressed format on the hard disk of the computer from where it can be burned to disk for safekeeping. The software does not only come with an option to backup USB devices to create USB images but also to restore them. It would be possible to backup the data of your iPod and later restore that image again. I’m not sure but it could work to replicate the data on another device of the same kind.

The USB Image Tool requires the Microsoft .net framework 2.0 and a computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista. It ships with a dll called usbit32.dll that has to be in the same folder as the application, which it is by default.

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What I did was to create a main folder on my E: drive which I named USB. I then assigned all my USB devices to subfolders of that folder which led to less confusion on my part. (Create the subfolders before continuing). Here is what I did after creating the folder structure.

Press Windows R, enter diskmgmt.msc and hit enter. This opens the Disk Management configuration that should display all drives and devices currently connected to your computer. Pick an USB device from the list and right-click that entry. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the menu.

This should open a new window that is displaying the current drive letter of the device and three buttons at the bottom which are named Add, Change and Remove.

Click on the Add button, select Mount into the following empty NTFS folder and click on browse. Now navigate to the subfolder that you want to assign the usb drive to and confirm the assignment. The USB drive will from now on be accessible from that folder as well if it is connected to the computer.

You can remove the drive letter if you want that by marking it in the main window and clicking on Remove.

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A rule of thumb would be to always unplug the device safely if you want o minimize the chance for data corruption. The Microsoft solution for disconnecting USB devices is not optimal and is different (of course) depending on your operating systems. One of the most nerve wreaking messages is “It is now safe to remove this device” which can’t be turned off as far as I know.

If a process has locked files on the device the user will receive the message “This device cannot be safely stopped” without telling him (of course) which process is responsible for the locked files.

The software USB Disk Ejector is one solution to some of the difficulties that users face. It get rids of the message that the device can be safely removed and it can also close processes that are locking files on the device so that it can be removed.

One thing I like is that you get a gui and a command line version. The command line version for instance could be used to create a shortcut to eject a drive by name, letter, program running and partial name. The gui is helpful for users who prefer to work with graphical user interfaces. It displays a list of all connected USB devices and will automatically refresh the window if a new device is connected to the computer. A double-click removes the USB devices from the computer.

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The capacity of the usb drive is shown on the surface of the usb drive making it very easy to monitor the available storage capacity of the usb drive. I only got an usb drive that is not showing it’s available capacity making it hard to judge if the free space on the device is sufficient to copy all the needed files on it.

The capacity is shown on a ten bar capacity meter which equals the storage capacity percentage of the drive. The available storage is displayed even if the usb drive is not connected to a computer. The usb drives come with a capacity of either one or two gigabytes and look very stylish.

Read More:

Lexarmedia Jumpdrive Mercury

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The user may choose a pin with up to ten digits which is then used to unlock the data on the device and make it accessible for devices that are connected to it. Flash Padlock, developed by Corsair Memory, automatically locks itself when removed from the device it is currently connected to.

The main advantages of Flash Padlock are:

• Platform independent solution
• Hardware based, no installation needed
• Easy to understand

The limitation to a maximum of ten digits for the pin makes it vulnerable to brute force attacks making it easy to calculate the time needed to try all possible combinations because all chars that can be entered and the limitation is known.

A software based solution such as True Crypt is offering more chars that can be used to decrypt data plus it supports longer keys. Ever calculated how long it takes to break a key that uses all possible chars and has a length of 40+ of them ?

The advantage is clearly that Flash Padlock does not need software and that it is easier to understand than a software based solution. Users only need to remember their Pin and have a solid protection of their data. This will definitely not be used areas where security is more important than accessibility but it should be enough for most users.

Flash Padlock comes in two models offering one and two gigabytes respectively and a price of around $40 for the two Gigabyte stick.

product description: Corsair

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The free software PStart is using relative paths instead of absolute ones which means that it can execute any applications on the device even if the driver letter changes. You can basically create a start menu for your portable applications using PStart that lists applications, sorted in groups like Internet, Games if you like, folders and other files such as documents.

All of this elements can be added by either creating a menu manually or scanning an folder or device for applications. Other features such as a search function and the ability to take notes are also included in the release. It should be noted that you can add all files, applications and folders to the menu which is an excellent way to handle CDs and DVDs as well.

I personally think that PStart is a useful application if you work regularly with removable devices. It does not make that much sense if you use them only occasionally.

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It is important to check if a unauthorized USB device has been connected to a computer. This could be a clear sign of a security breach, maybe data theft. One could argue that the damage has already been done but would you prefer to know of it at all or be totally unprepared for future events that result from this ? It is probably not that important for non business users but it could still be nice to know if someone else connected a device to your computer while you were away.

USB Deview lists the name of the device, a description and device type, a serial number and a created date. You do get a pretty good impression which kind of device has been connected. I checked my computer and was able to spot the Sony Ericsson W810 mobile phone from a friend that was once connected to my computer.

You can use USB Deview to uninstall previously connected USB devices or disconnect currently connected ones. Great little application, does not need to be installed at all and uses just 38K unpacked.

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One way to check the backups for media integrity is to use a freeware called media checker. Media checker works with all media on devices that are currently connected to the computer it is running. It can scan folders or complete drives and really supports everything that you want to check for media integrity.

I contacted the author of Media Checker because it was not clear to me how media checker performed the check and decided whether a file was corrupted or not. The author answered me this way: “Media Checker considers the data to be safe when all the files in all subfolders of a selected media or folder can be read without any error from the beginning to the end. The program list all the files and attempt to read all of them byte by byte until the end.”

A way of using media checker would be to test the backups from time to time and react immediately when one check fails. This works best if you have two or even more backups of the same data of course.

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Open the command prompt by pressing Windows + R, typing cmd and hitting enter. Type the following line and hit enter at the end:  set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 ; Once this is done open your device manager from the control panel and enable the option to view hidden devices in the View tab.

This ensures that all hidden devices that have not been removed in the device manager will be listed and you can see if someone else added a external hard drive, usb stick or similar devices to your system. Great way to find out if someone spies on you or copied files from your system while you were not there.

It can be easily countered by removing the device from the device managers list.

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I can use the tool to start true crypt automatically when I insert my hard drive that has been encrypted by it, could start iTunes when I add my iPod and start a background virus scan if I, or someone else, connects a usb drive that is not known. Please note that the user who is adding the usb device has full control over the system which means that he could abort everything that you autostart. (like a virus scan)

The tool uses the following syntax which has to be added to a .bat file which has to be autostarted with windows.

USBVirusScan cmd /k %d:

A real example would look like the following. Say you do want to start the file antivirus.exe on drive c:\ whenever a usb device is connected. You would create a new bat file which is basically a text file with the .bat extension. Create the file test.bat in the same folder that usb virus scan resides. Add the following line to it.

USBVirusScan “c:\antivirus.exe” %d:

It is possible to add additional parameters. -c hides the command window, -i hides the tray icon, -e disables the exit menu.

I was not able to figure out how to create autostart entries that would use the volume name or volume serial number so I asked Didier the author of the software directly. The following paragraph is his answer to the question, thanks for being so quick to answer it Didier.

On my laptop, I have this entry in the Startup menu: “D:\Program Files\USBVirusScan\USBVirusScan.exe” wscript “D:\Program Files\USBVirusScan\tasks.vbs” %d %s ‘%v’ tasks.vbs will start TrueCrypt when I insert a USB-key with serial number “318606D2″ to automatically mount the TrueCrypt volume on the USB-key. If it’s my MP3 player that is inserted (volume name PackardBell), 2xEplorer is launched. And in any other case, a virusscan is executed. tasks.vbs:

dim WshShell

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)

‘wscript.echo Wscript.Arguments.Item(2)

if Wscript.Arguments.Item(1) = “318606D2″ then WshShell.run “”"D:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe”" /v ” & Wscript.Arguments.Item(0) & “:\d1.tc /lz /q”, 1, true

elseif Wscript.Arguments.Item(2) = “‘PackardBell’” then

WshShell.run “”"D:\Program Files\2xExplorer\2xExplorer.exe”" D:\MyDirsD\Temp\PodcastQueue ” & Wscript.Arguments.Item(0) & “:\”, 1,

true

else

WshShell.run “”"D:\Program Files\Network Associates\VirusScan\csscan.exe”" /target ” & Wscript.Arguments.Item(0) & “: /secure /quiet /log “”D:\Program Files\USBVirusScan\log.txt”"”, 1, true

end if

You would have to edit the path and serial volume number to make the script usable but I think it demonstrates the usage nicely.

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